Hikki in Hong Kong

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After seeing Nakashima Mika (中島美嘉) in concert earlier this year and missing Misia later, we were pretty excited to find out that Utada Hikaru (宇多田ヒカル) was coming to Hong Kong. While Foursheets was initially unable to get us tickets in the mad rush, we eventually found another avenue to get ourselves seats tonight, and I have to say that the seating wasn't half bad!

For me, Utada Hikaru is an artist I paid attention to during a period when Japanese pop culture featured a little more heavily in my life, back around the turn of the millenium. She got very famous pretty quickly because First Love was used as the theme song for Terms for a Witch (魔女の条件), a J-drama I was very fond of at the time. Then everything kinda exploded from there. But my enthuasiam for her music kinda faded after Deep River, and I was barely aware of her music after that - other than occasional songs like Goodbye Happiness with the fun video and Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence - FYI - the latter because the piece from Ryuichi Sakamoto is one of my all-time favorites.

So I showed up at the concert on her Science Fiction Tour tonight - her very first tour involving a stop in Hong Kong - expecting not to know at least half the songs she was going to sing. But that's OK. It was enough just to be here and enjoy some of the classics.

Café Müller and the Rite of Spring

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It's been a long, few years, but I finally got to see live performances by Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch again.  Three years ago I missed the opportunity to see them when I stupidly double-booked myself and left my friend stranded by herself.  This time I wasn't gonna be so stupid, and I dutifully logged in to Hong Kong Art Festival's website just hours after booking opened to get my tickets.

Tonight the company was presenting two of their most iconic works.  I had seen snippets of both in Pina, the movie by Wim Wenders, but I would finally get to see the entire works, live.

We started with Café Müller, which was first performed in 1978.  The set was the interior to an empty cafe, with tables and chairs dotted all over the stage.  A set of revolving doors was placed at the corner upstage right, and there are plexiglass walls indicating the boundaries of the cafe.

Clockenflap 2015 and assholes

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Clockenflap was never something that I was interested in.  In previous years my impression of this music festival was kinda like Lollapalooza - and I went to the very first one - but with smaller and local acts that I didn't really care for.  This year, though, things were a little different.  I got curious and checked the lineup, and immediately saw a couple of bands that I really, really like... So I decided to get myself a ticket for the last day.

We arrived at the entrance around 5pm, and slowly strolled towards the Harbourflap stage at the far end of the grounds.  All of the acts I wanted to catch were playing on this particular stage, so we found a spot not too far from the stage and waited for the first one.

CANVAZ road trip day 6: crossing the Mojave Desert

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After staying in Bakersfield overnight, it was time to head into Vegas.  We went back onto State Route 58 and headed east, and soon entered the vast expanse of the Mojave Desert.

Naturally the landscape looked a little bleak, and the only thing worth noting was the huge windfarm in the area, so it was pretty boring for a while.  Suddenly, I looked out the window and saw what seemed to be a collection of airplanes near a control tower.  Was there an airport here in the middle of nowhere?  Suddenly I remembered about the famous airplane boneyard in the Mojave Desert, and sure enough, the Mojave Air and Space Port was right here besides Route 58.

Above and beyond the beauty of Taiwan

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I cried tonight.

I was watching a showing of the acclaimed documentary Beyond Beauty: Taiwan from Above from Director Chi Po-lin, courtesy of MOViE MOViE and Duddell's.  The images shot from the skies above my beloved Taiwan were indeed beautiful and breathtaking - well, some of them at least... But I also got to see a lot of things which were deeply disturbing and thought-provoking, and I couldn't help but cry.  Cry for my country because my fellow countrymen have spent the last few decades destroying the very land which we call home.

Bolshoi in Hong Kong

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I'm lucky to have friends around me who love performing arts, and they always manage to take time out to book tickets for sought-after shows.  Last year my friend Ninja booked tickets for us to go see Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch's production of Iphigenia in Tauris.  I was so, so grateful that she remembered how much I enjoy Pina Bausch's work... then I proceeded to do a complete fuckup when I got the showtime confused, and organized a weekend eating trip to Macau.  Not only did I deprive myself of a great performance, I also ended up making Ninja go watch the show on her own.

This year Ninja and I kinda coordinated early, and she picked up tickets to a bunch of shows.  Most interesting among them were the two shows by The Bolshoi Ballet.  Yes, I can count the number of times I've seen ballet on one hand, and this would be the perfect opportunity to get more exposure.

Starry day in Kwun Tong

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The original plan for today was to putz around at home until after lunch, then make my way to the island side for a kiddie birthday party followed by dinner.  As a result of an invitation to Kwun Tong, I decided to make it a real excursion and ended up making 3 stops around this area that's normally off my map...


I dragged my ass out of bed to catch the early show of McDull: Me and My Mum (麥兜 我和我媽媽).  I've always loved McMug (麥嘜) and McDull (麥兜) ever since I was introduced to them over a decade ago - yes, I love juvenile, "low B (低B)" humor - but I've kinda missed out on the movies that came after the first two.  So I went to Kwun Tong to watch this early show before it disappeared off the screens.

Die Roboter von Kraftwerk

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I can't believe it's been nearly two years since my last concert.  I guess these days its easier for me to find a group of people to eat and drink with, and much harder to find people who share the same taste in movies and music.  When I first found out that Kraftwerk was coming to Hong Kong, I wanted to go but really didn't know who I could go with.  They're kinda esoteric… and probably unknown to many under the age of 30 to 35…

So I resorted to a little trick I've been employing lately: posting about it on Facebook and see if anyone would respond.  Luckily, someone did.  My friend Susan and her husband already had tickets, but since they were standing tickets on the floor, there wouldn't be any issue for me to buy an extra ticket and join them.

Before the concert, Susan very graciously invited me over for a quick dinner at their home.  After a quick round of delicious Thai food, involving just enough heat to get my blood flowing faster, we crossed the harbor to the Kowloonbay International Trade and Exhibition Centre for the event.

Since we're in Hong Kong, the band mostly performed the English versions of the songs.  I attempted to write down the order of the set, although since some of the songs are mixed together I may have missed a couple as they may be mere segments in the show...

Ich bin ein Berliner

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OK, so I'm not really from Berlin... nor am I really a jelly donut, the way JFK is reputedly to have proclaimed himself to be.  For years I have been cracking a stupid joke by telling people that this is the only complete sentence of German that I can speak... thanks to the attention and controversy about the grammatical accuracy of JFK's speech back in 1963.

Anyway.  I had a rare dose of culture tonight thanks to the parental units.  They had received tickets to a concert tonight by the Berliner Philharmoniker, and thought a little classical music would do me some good.  After my 6-hour ordeal earlier today, dad and I rushed over to the National Concert Hall and made it just in time for the event.

We had extremely good seats - front row center circle.  We had a bird's eye view of the stage, and there was nothing to complain about in terms of acoustics.  The concert was being simulcast to 2 other venues in Taiwan, and was also being recorded for a future DVD or as a concert in Digital Concert Hall - Berliner Philharmoniker's online concert library.

Kylie Aphrodite

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I've been listening to the music of Kylie Minogue on and off for more than 20 years.  Ever since hearing her first single The Loco-Motion as a Freshman in college, to Especially For You - the duet with Jason Donovan... and the dark but intriguing duet Where the Wild Roses Grow with Nick Cave.  So after years of being somewhat of a fan, I finally got to see her in concert tonight.

Nelken

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It was three years ago that I was first introduced to the works of Pina Bausch, the iconic Artistic Director of Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch.  I really enjoyed the performance of Vollmond at the 2008 Hong Kong Arts Festival, and I'd been looking forward to another chance to catch more of the same.

Kiss Them For Me

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My iPhone was on shuffle mode today when it started playing Kiss Them For Me by Siouxsie and the Banshees.  For some reason this triggered a flood of memories from almost 20 years ago.

In the summer of 1991, my roommate Eric and I went to see the very first Lollapalooza on tour.  We were both into a good number of bands on the tour, such as Nine Inch Nails, Jane's Addiction and of course Siouxsie.

I remember Siouxsie and the Banshees got on stage during late afternoon, after most of us have spent a good part of the day at the venue.  We've all spent a pretty penny or two on bottled water to rehydrate ourselves, and there were plenty of empty plastic bottles around.  For some reason, people near the front of the stage started throwing empty bottles up in the air as Siouxsie was singing this song.  There were literally hundreds of bottles flying around, with people catching them and tossing them back up.  From a distance it looked really interesting, like a swarm of insects buzzing around.  For some reason this image has been branded in my memory since then.



Remembrance of things past...

Chinese Ghost Story meets French pop music

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Part of the goodies I brought back with me from France when I returned a week ago was a stack of DVDs I bought at the Virgin Megastore on Champs-Élysées.  It hasn't been easy to find music and concert videos of my favorite French pop singer - Mylène Farmer - outside of France.  I decided it was time for me to just go and grab everything I didn't already own...

Mid-way through the series of music videos I came across one that caught my attention.  L'Âme-stram-gram is a song I've listened to numerous times, and here I was watching the video for the first time, surprised by the image of Mylène dressing up in what looked like Chinese period costume, running around a set that resembled the great wall.  Later on in the video, Mylène's character and her twin were flying around and extending their long, snake-like (or lizard-like) tongues...



My first thought was that this was a reference to the Legend of the White Snake (白蛇傳), but once I watched the "making of" clip entitled "Les 5 Jours de Pekin" I realized how far off I was.  The music video was actually directed by Ching Siu Tong (程小東), the director behind A Chinese Ghost Story (倩女幽魂).  In the back of my mind, I had kinda known that the movie was somewhat popular in the West, but this was anecdotal evidence of how far the influence has reached.  To have a major French pop star seek out a Chinese director to work on her video... that doesn't happen every day.

By the way, I love Mylène... just in case it's not clear.  She's one of my favorite performers.

The culturally insensitive American and the new Middle East

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I finally got around to watching Sex and the City 2 this past weekend.  I have no issues with admitting that for years, I was an ardent fan of the TV series.  I liked the fashion, although sometimes it got to be a little too much.  I thought it was great that women could get past 30, be single and independent. 

While I found the movie to be very entertaining, this time Samantha really got on my nerves.  For years I'd been a big supporter of this successful career woman who doesn't take no for an answer and flies in the face of convention.  Not this time.

Samantha was the stereotype of the culturally insensitive American.  Loud and brash, they walk around the world expecting everyone else to speak English, mainly because it's the only language that they themselves are able to speak.  They don't bother to study the local customs or language, and feel that they can do as they please anywhere.  While I haven't met many of these people in real life, especially in recent years as I tend not to move in those circles, anecdotal evidence suggests that they do exist.

I may not speak the language of every country I visit, but I take pride in the homework I do on the customs and culture of the people of those nations.  I dress modestly when I visit temples around the world.  I take care to point the soles of my feet away from people in Thailand, and I don't pat children on the head.  I don't extend my left hand to greet others while in Muslim countries, and PDA is the furthest on my mind.

I'm not sure what kind of message the writers were trying to send the audience.  For me, I always knew that while the Middle East has "modernized" over the last few years at a breakneck pace, it doesn't mean that the people have thrown away their culture or morals.  So while Samantha may scream "The new Middle East, my ass!" I would attribute her mistake as a combination of arrogance and naïveté.

One should always be aware of the legal and moral boundaries wherever one goes, and cross them at one's peril.  I have zero sympathy for people who cross the line, plead innocence, then decry the local laws as being "barbaric" and "outdated".  I always thought Michael Fay deserved the caning he got, and that Bill Clinton was wrong to plead for mercy.  Same with drug traffickers who got caught and were hung in Malaysia.

I hope that while the audience got a few good laughs at Samantha's antics, it also served to remind them how not to behave.  It really doesn't pay to act insensitively in foreign countries, as it could only ruin what would otherwise be a pleasant experience.  Next time you're in a country like France, instead of hollering in English, try a couple words of your broken French.  My guess is that you'll find a much warmer reception than you were expecting...

Mad World

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The resident Froggie invited me to join her for a concert tonight.  Tears for Fears were in Hong Kong for the first time, and I thought it'd be good to listen to some of my old favorites live.

As I left the office this evening, I mentioned to my new colleague that I was going to see a concert.  I hesitated about telling her the name of the band, since she was born just a few months before "Shout" was released as a single... I was pretty damn sure that she'd never heard of these guys, and I was right!  Yes, I feel old...

After being on foot in the standing section in front of the stage for more than 45 minutes, the hall went dark and a choir recording of "Mad World" started playing.  When they turned on the lights, I could see Curt singing while Roland played the guitar.  The first thought that came to mind was how old these guys looked... I of course still remember how fresh these guys looked back in 1984, but that was more than 25 years ago... These guys are pushing 50, and then I remembered how old that made me...

The follow up was "Everybody Wants to Rule the World", which got the crowd going early.  They band mixed up the set and played some of the songs I didn't know so well, and the crowd calmed down a little.  A second, more "original" rendition of "Mad World" came and was an instant crowd-pleaser.  One of the surprises of the evening was a low-key cover of "Billie Jean", which we liked a lot.

The band left the stage at the end of the regular set, and the crowd started chanting the chorus to "Shout" as we waited for the encore.  I've never been to a concert where the crowd used lyrics from a particular song was the chant for the encore...  As the band returned to the stage a couple of minutes later, Roland stood in front of the mic and said "Enough!"  Was he cringing at the way we mangled their song, and just wanted us to stop?

I had long given up hope of hearing my favorite Tears for Fears song, which unlike many people isn't "Shout" but "Woman in Chains".  Oleta Adams wasn't here, and I didn't see any female backup singers on stage.  Michael Wainwright to the rescue... I didn't think much of his singing when he was on stage before the main show started, but for this song he sang in falsetto, and the result was pretty impressive.  If I closed my eyes I could almost believe a woman was singing...



The final song of the concert was, you guessed it..."Shout".  The guys almost didn't have to sing any of the chorus, since the whole crowd was chanting it.  It was a pretty good way to end the show, and for the first time during the concert I didn't mind having the crowd around me sing along with the song and drowning out the vocals of the band...

On Silver Wings

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I love this song. I first heard it years ago while watching the Japanese drama Beautiful Life 〜ふたりでいた日々〜, where they used this during the opening credits. It's so pleasant and soothing - the female vocals are just soooo alluring... Like a siren song, or a lover beckoning you with the promise of a warm embrace, wrapping you up comfortably like a warm blanket.

I heard it over the radio a couple of days ago, and finally decided to look for it.  It's called On Silver Wings and is composed by Steve Spiro and Paul Wickens, and recorded on the CD Glorious World.

On Silver Wings (a)

MP3 search on RAPID4ME.com

A diva comes to town

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I went to the Sarah Brightman concert tonight. She has an amazing voice and I finally had a chance to see her live, which was pretty exciting. There's a clear difference between the average age of this concert and that of, say, Hamasaki Ayumi. Lots of middle-aged people and old folks, and even our very own Bowtie Tsang was in attendance.

The concert started with the band playing Lisa Gerrard's "Sanvean" - one of my all-time favorite songs. Sarah didn't perform vocals on this song, but simply made her entrance during the latter half. The band then launched into the energetic intro of "Fleurs du Mal", followed by a few more songs from the album "Symphony".

The first half of the concert closed out with "Attesa", my favorite song from the album "Symphony". An adaptation of the Intermezzo from Pietro Mascagni's opera "Cavalleria rusticana", it's a piece I've always loved. Sarah performed the song while sitting on a swing in mid-air, while red confetti slowly fell from the ceiling. She also had a massive train to her skirt, one that hung all the way back down to the stage...

After a brief intermission, Sarah came out with "You Take My Breath Away" from the album "Harem", followed by a few other songs from the same album as well as "Luna". This half of the concert ended, of course, with "Time to Say Goodbye". Alessandro Safina toured with Sarah and sang the male vocals on a few of the songs, including the part of the Phantom. I was hoping that Christine wouldn't make an appearance, but Sarah was playing to the crowd and I'll bet that over half the people came to hear this particular number...

The encore started with "Deliver Me" and ended the way I thought it would. She is in Hong Kong and of course she would end with "You and Me", the theme song to the 2008 Beijing Olympics. This won the approval of the crowd, and everyone was satisfied.

What impressed me most was the setup of the stage. Sarah's many costume changes were designed to work with the animation for each song, projected downward from the top and reflected onto giant glass panels angled at roughly 45 degrees. I thought the intermix of projection and live performers creating a complete picture together was really innovative.

I was really happy to have been able to see Sarah live for the first time, to hear her beautiful voice not through a recording but in a concert hall. I hope I'll get to see her again.

Memories of Central Asia

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I woke up in the middle of the night today, having fallen asleep on my couch out of fatigue. As my eyes began to focus, the first images that I saw on the TV looked really familiar. Suddenly it hits me: it's one of the medressas in Bukhara!

A quick check tells me that the movie is The Keeper: The Legend of Omar Khayyam. So it's a movie about the famous Persian poet/mathematician/astronomer. I had come across Omar Khayyam while researching for my Central Asia trip earlier this year, but this was in his capacity as a poet and author of the Rubaiyat. Later while touring the Ulugbek Observatory in Samarkand, there were displays of Omar Khayyam's portraits as well as copies of his work in astronomy and mathematics.

 

The movie was obviously an embellished account of the life of Omar Khayyam as well as the popular story linking Omar Khayyam with Hassan-i-Sabah, the founder of the original band of assasins - the Hashshashin. The plot is moderately entertaining. But whatever the reality behind the story, it's a movie which talks about a few key figures during the Persian/Seljukid era. Morever it is shot mostly in Bukhara and Samarkand, two of the most beautiful cities in Uzbekistan.

Now that it's been 6 months since my trip, it's pretty exciting to see footage of the Registan Square - the Ulugbek Medressa and especially the glittering Tilla-Kari Medressa - as well as Bibi Khanym Mosque, Kalon Mosque and its minaret, the Ark in Bukhara...

So who cares if all of the backdrop was built some 4-5 centuries after the time of Omar Khayyam, and also some 1-2,000 km away from where he would have been? I suppose it would be much more difficult to film this in Esfahan in Iran, compared to the tourist-friendly Uzbekistan... For people who have never been to this part of the world, the movie gives a glimpse of the beautiful Islamic architecture - located in two cities which are now UNESCO World Heritage Sites.

As for me, all the images evoke wonderful memories from earlier in the year, and remind me that all the hardship endured on the trip were well worth it. I have seen these sites with my own eyes, and hopefully the memories will stay with me for a very long time.

Songs that keep running in my head

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Over the last couple of days, several songs keep popping into my head from Imogen Heap, also known as the voice behind Frou Frou. The names may not sound familiar to you, but these songs have shown up in a few popular movies which you may have caught:

"Let Go" in Garden State
"Holding Out for a Hero" in Shrek 2
"Just for Now" in The Holiday - which is on "repeat" in my head so here's a video I found on YouTube - not the official video but made of footage from the movie.

 

 I also really like "Breathe In", but I'm unable to embed the video so here's the link to it on YouTube.

The scary future?

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HBO was showing Gattaca, one of my favorite movies of all time. Ethan Hawke and Uma Thurman co-starred in this movie, and would go on to marry each other afterwards. As I sat watching the start of the movie, I am reminded of two recent conversations with friends. Putting the two together gives a slightly scary picture for the future.

I was told by a friend that her son has survived his first school interviews, and has been accepted into two nurseries. The kid is 19 months old. Now what's wrong with this picture?

In a crowded city like Hong Kong (the same is true for New York), competition to get into the best schools is fierce, which produces schools that are really stuck-up and snobby. Apparently, my friend's son went through a grilling session, and was peppered with a series of questions. He's a 19-month old kid, for heaven's sake... He's barely started to talk, and he's already being interrogated?! I was joking with my friend that her son will have no problem getting jobs in the future, coz he's been interviewing since before he was 2!

As I discuss this issue with other friends whose kids are now of schooling age, we shake our heads in disbelief. Most of us did go to very good schools in our time, and for me this started early. I went to a prestigious kindergarten in Singapore, the best elementary school in Taipei, the best international school in Tokyo, and a top-20 US university. But I certainly don't remember having to interview for the kindergarten and elementary schools, never mind the thought of being grilled before age 2...

Is getting into the right nursery or kindergarten that important? Are the futures of kids today determined as early as during their nursery years?

Gattaca offers one version of the future, where one can genetically engineer children so give them the best possible future. Those who are not engineered are born with "faults" and are deemed less desirable by society, and are relegated to menial jobs such as janitors. Society practices genetic discrimination and is divided into two classes, where the "Invalid" class becomes like the Dalits or "untouchables" in India's caste system.

As competition becomes fierce in the future, I can easily imagine a day when would-be parents resort to genetically engineering their children to ensure that they get into the best schools, are offered the best jobs...etc. What a sad society that would be, where nothing is left to chance and everything is pre-determined.

I hope I don't live to see that day.